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Job Details

Category:Admin/Secretarial > General Virtual Assistance

ID:76881

Title:Personal Assistant Needed to help Expanding Entrepreneur

Location:Anywhere

Job Description

I am a 27 year old entrepreneur who left the city of London to set up my own business two years ago. 18 months on and I am very busy balancing a number of growing companies which I started at the same time:

1. A Computer Training company for the Over-50s
2. A Fundraising Agency for the Charity Sector
3. A Film Production Company
4. A niche Software Business

Based in Oxfordshire, I am now also about to launch a fifth business, an unique online home-wares shop, over the next 6 months.

Whilst I employ tutors and researchers for the above businesses to carry out the day-to-day work, I personally oversee all the companies, their expansion, their marketing and promotion, any issues or problems, look after clients, find new work, etc, etc. It has got to the point where I cannot do everything myself any more, especially in terms of researching new areas that I want to expand into, as each of these businesses has a number of different "strands" or services, as well as a number of possible new avenues to look into.

I therefore require an able Personal Assistant (from anywhere in the UK) who can now support me across ALL the businesses to take some of the strain away (to give you some idea, I currently have a 20-page, 11,000 word to-do list on 'Word' which I work on from day-to-day) and make sure my businesses can continue their growth and not stall.

Running small businesses means working with tight budgets, so I have only set aside enough budget at the moment to fund an assistant part-time for ONE FULL DAY PER WEEK (8 hours, 9am to 5pm), for the next THREE MONTHS (July, August and September), at the rate of approximately £8 per hour / £64 per day / £260 per month. These funds are confirmed and already set aside so the successful applicant will have a minimum of 3 months work guaranteed, for one day per week, once on board. The hope is that, during busy periods, and if funds allow, I will ask this individual to work a second day per week when needed, so the possibility of earning more is certainly there.

The one day per week is flexible, i.e. it can be any day of the working week. In busy periods I may try and ask for a certain day, due to deadlines. I therefore need someone who is able to do this work and be on-call to be able to complete one-day per week guaranteed, rather than an individual who is so busy with other work that it will worry me whether they are available or not from week to week.

This 3-month piece of work can be considered a trial-period, as if the relationship proves successful, I would certainly like to continue the partnership and extend the work past September. The potential for a full-time job in the future is certainly there, as I would ideally like a full-time assistant to act as both office organiser, admin clerk and researcher for New Concepts. I feel the work / position is much more interesting than a normal PA post handling pure-admin.

This is a home-based role which would suit a flexible freelancer who can put aside one day per week to do this role justice, working remotely from their place of residence, with access to the Internet. Free landline calls would be a bonus, but otherwise we will pay expenses to cover this.

Please note this is not your average / normal PA role, as the work is extremely varied across 4-5 different sectors. So I am therefore looking for someone with experience who is very good at balancing these requirements, thinking on their feet, working hard, looking at many different random things at once, and someone who can communicate professionally to people at all different levels of business from all different sectors (whether a CEO, a Marketing Director, or the retired editor of a local village Gazette).

The ability to accomplish a lot from a full 9-5 working day is also of the up-most important for me, as there is so much to do I cannot afford to hire a slow worker! I also place a huge amount of importance on finding an assistant who themselves are innovative and entrepreneurial, who can suggest and understand ideas quickly, and not require constant assistance during the day.

A typical day comprising research, admin, communication, chasing up and so on, would probably look like this:

1. Finding out the contact details for a Marketing Director of a well-known brand for a Film Festival
2. Researching all the media outlets (newspapers, radio, local magazines) in a certain county of the UK, and statistics on the population there.
3. Speaking to advertisers of local village gazettes about invoices, advert sizes, prices and receipts
4. Speaking to individuals, libraries, churches, retirement homes, or schools about computer lessons.
5. Finding out information on Grant-Making Trusts in the UK using a database of ours, checking appeal letters to Trusts, researching and speaking to charities.
6. Paying expenses for film cast members, looking over crew CVs, etc.
7. Arranging an advert on gumtree.com
8. Researching homeware suppliers and retailer exhibitions - building lists.
9. Chasing up testimonials for our websites
10. Booking access at a networking club in London, or tickets for a film in Cannes through a distributor.

So it will be varied and interesting work. The successful applicant will be expected to sign an NDA to protect my businesses (and future ideas), will be paid monthly on a self-employed basis (so you are responsible for your own Tax and NI), and will be setup with their own email accounts across all our businesses - so you need to have Outlook or MacMail to be able to process these different messages. Having access / control to my own email may be looked at in the future.

I would ideally like to have a telephone interview with the top candidates, before starting work. Whilst the 1st July is the official start date, I would ideally like to commence before this.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Matthew Adam

Job Budget

Type:Per Hour

Contract duration:3 Months

Weekly commitment needed:8 Hours Per Week

Budget:£7 - £8 per hour (Approx $11 - $13)

Additional Information

Attached Files: None

Bidding ends:Bidding Closed

Job Posted:07/06/2011 18:21

Bidding activity on this Job

Bids:67

Who has Bid:

Clarification Board

A. M. on 07/06/2011 19:55
Hi Matthew and thanks for the invitation to bid. Unfortunately I would not be able to work within your provided budget and as you seem to have accounted for this pretty exactly I am afraid I would not be able to help. If you would like me to place a bid however with my usual budget I would be happy to do so and this may give you a comparison of experience. Good luck in the search.

Allison

Reply from Client

M. A. on 08/06/2011 00:45
Hi Alison - as above, sure I understand, don't worry. If your bid is within the ball-park then yes, by all means go ahead. If not then thank-you for taking the time to look at this and hopefully keep in touch for the future. Thanks. Matt

B. J. on 07/06/2011 22:19
I would be interested in bidding for this work but wanted to know if there is any flexibility with the hourly rate?
Many thanks

Reply from Client

M. A. on 08/06/2011 00:42
Hi there,

Thanks for the interest. We have increased the hourly rate to £8 now (being processed by the PPH team so changes will probably be live tomorrow), but yes we are unfortunately restricted to this budget pretty much, and I realise it is not top-drawer but I cannot do much about this right now unfortunately!

However, some people have made higher bids already and I am interested to see the whole breadth of experience out there and what can be got for what rate, so by all means present a bid that is higher if you like and we will look at it -as long as it is within the ball-park.

Many thanks

Matthew

S. D. on 07/06/2011 22:58
Hi Matthew

Unfortunately the rate is not something we could go down to but I just wanted to say thank you for posting such a well thought out and written job.

Good luck with your search.

Sam

Reply from Client

M. A. on 08/06/2011 00:44
Thanks Sam, no problem at all, I totally understand. I would love to pay more but I can't right now. Hopefully the package will get better in the future. Appreciate the comments on the piece - I have always been someone who enjoys detail so I wanted to give potential applicants as much as possible! Cheers. M

G. F. on 08/06/2011 05:15
Hi, just wondering if this is a location specific job offer. Do you have to be in the UK to apply, or can someone from somewhere else apply? Thank you.

Thanks,
Gene

Reply from Client

M. A. on 08/06/2011 14:42
Hi Gene,

Yes ideally I would prefer if this person was based in the UK. I know SKYPE and other systems allow international calls much more easily now but in case I need to meet this person, or hand them anything in person, and considering the issues over cost of calls / time lag on the phone when calling / time difference based with being abroad, the UK is best I think.

Thanks

Matt

S. P. on 08/06/2011 14:28
Hi Matthew,

Completely understand you are on a budget and the rate- but are you willing to pay towards phone bills etc?

Kindest regards,

Sara

Reply from Client

M. A. on 08/06/2011 14:43
Hi Sara,

Yes, definitely willing to cover phone calls made if you don't get them free as part of your landline package. To be honest at the start there shouldn't be much of a need for phone calls anyway as a lot of the work will be research based - but yes we will cover it if needed. Should say that in the above information I think.

Thanks

Matt

R. S. on 08/06/2011 15:33
Hi Matthew

I'm extremely interested in your job. Prior to bidding can I check whether the hours required have to be covered in one day or are you happy to split them across a week, for example 2 days?

Thanks

Roni

Reply from Client

M. A. on 08/06/2011 15:36
Hi Roni,

Thanks for the enquiry. I would allow the hours to be spread across two days, but ideally I would prefer it to be done in one day, just in terms of covering off the work that needs to be done in the quickest possible way, especially as some tasks may take a few hours, so splitting them up into 4 hour chunks (across 2 days), and maybe having to stop half-way through something and wait until another day to finish it, may not be the best outcome.

Many thanks

Matt

R. S. on 08/06/2011 16:00
Hi Matthew

Thanks for the response. Would you allow accommodating the hours within the same day but split say perhaps during the day then the evening (of the same day)?

Sorry to pester I just don't want you to waste any time if my services aren't any good.

Thanks

Roni

Reply from Client

M. A. on 08/06/2011 16:07
HI Roni - don't worry. That would probably be acceptable, but I guess what I am getting at here is that I wouldn't like to have a situation where I have something urgent that needs to be done (maybe a telephone call during office opening hours), and will have to wait until someone is free in the evening for them to do it. I definitely work late into the evening anyway, outside normal office opening hours, and for research this is probably okay - but I would feel more comfortable knowing I could rely on someone for a straight 8 hours during the day.

Thanks

Matt

K. M. on 12/06/2011 16:53
Hi Matthew

I am interested in the above post and was just wondering if you are still taking bids as have seen you have had 66 so far and wasn't sure if you had already shortlisted.

Many thanks

Kathleen

Reply from Client

M. A. on 13/06/2011 15:54
Hi Kathleen,

Yes we have had a lot of interest so I think I will be stopping this tomorrow and making a shortlist, if you want to send your information over to add into the mix.

Many thanks

Matt

B. J. on 13/06/2011 10:49
Hi Matthew

I would have loved to bid for this work, but I am unable to do so based on the hourly rate you are proposing.

I wish you every success with your existing and new ventures, and hope you find an exceptional PA who can support this success.

Regards

Billie-Jo

Reply from Client

M. A. on 13/06/2011 15:54
No problem Billie-Jo - I understand. Thanks for the kind words.

Matt